I used to use it, but lately (a year or so?) it appears they don't accept Mastercards anymore, and since that's the only credit card I have it's not an option for me anymore. But it used to work just fine! I never had a problem and I've used it for stuff that's expensive enough.
I am the same as Robin...I used to use it with no problems to pay hugofilia several times but Mastercard no longer accepts Bidpay to make payments so I have not used it for over 6 months. It worked fine and the seller receives an email straight away notifying that the payer has paid and the money will arrive soon. The good thing about hugofilia is that he would send the package as soon as he received the email confirmation so a lot of the times he received payment around the same time I received the package which was really nice of John and probably not many people would do this.
I've used Bidpay a few times to pay for some items from ebay and never had a problem. I think ebay's buyer protection program doesn't cover payments paid with Bidpay though and I don't think Bidpay has its own buyer protection program, so Paypal is a lot safer.
However you could probably get your money back through your credit card company if there was a problem. I had to do this once with an auction I paid for through Paypal. Paypal said I was entitled to a refund but the seller had closed their paypal account and taken off with my money so they couldn't refund it. I notified my credit card company and they arranged a chargeback on my credit card. Took about 3 months but they also refunded the interest I paid on my credit card.
It seen to me that bidpay auctions are sometimes a lot cheaper.
Hi Tor,
Thats because it doesn't cost the seller anything whereas with paypal the seller has to pay a fee.
I forgot to mention also that the buyer has to pay a small fee to have the money order delivered through Bidpay. So you might want to take that into account. I'm pretty sure it was only a couple of US$...about $2 I think but I think this may vary depending on the amount paid.